New Delhi, Aug 17: The Supreme Court on Thursday made a veiled attack on the Centre by asking what courts should do when there is no governance and citizens’ rights are violated because of government’s inaction. The apex court said suggestions have been made that the judiciary should refrain from entering the domain of governance.

“We have been told that governance is for the government and not for the courts. But there is no governance. What to do then," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta was quoted as saying. This came a day after Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told a gathering of judges and lawyers that judiciary let the government run the country.

"The founding fathers always wanted governance must be left to those elected to govern by the people of India," Prasad said at the function where Justice Lokur was also present. Similarly, Attorney General K K Venugopal had on August 8 told the bench headed by Justice Lokur that it should refrain from making hard-hitting observations while hearing public interest litigation.

While hearing on a matter related to providing shelter to urban homeless in the country, the bench was told by the Centre that several states have not yet constituted a committee to deal with the issues of implementation of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the petitioners, told the bench that the apex court should “crack its whip” on the defaulting states. “The whip is broken,” the bench, also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, said.

Bhushan then told the court that chief secretaries of these states, which have not yet constituted the committees, should be asked to appear in the court to explain. A lawyer for one of the petitioners told the court that some coercive steps should be taken against these states as no progress has been made in the matter.

“What is to be done? We cannot make houses,” the bench observed, adding, “What coercive steps? The governance is for the government and not for the courts”. The apex court later asked the Centre to give within 10 days a chart on the status of each states along with details of composition of committee, date of notification for it and meetings held by the panel. (With PTI inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 17, 2018 08:30 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).